Facebook takes another step in reducing fake news on the platform.
The social network has announced that, as of today, a new policy comes into force which provides for the automatic reporting of users who periodically share hoaxes.
Once an account has been labeled as such, Facebook's algorithms will gradually hide its posts from friend's wallboards, so as to decrease their effectiveness.
If so far the intervention of the Facebook analysis team concerned specific posts, the novelty will impact directly on the accounts, limiting all future shared contents and not just those considered fake. However, the company underlined that the report will not lead to the cancellation of an account or to definitive sanctions but a temporal suspension, following a continuous sharing of hoaxes, cannot be excluded. Facebook has introduced two other updates aimed at the fight against fake news. The platform, on desktop and app, will tag a page that has repeatedly shared information reported by fact-checkers. Users can click on the banner shown to find out more. For some articles, the most popular ones,Facebook will also offer a link with information on why the news is considered false, a real denial report, with evidence, numbers and supporting documents.
Just a few days ago, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, asked digital platforms to "assume their responsibilities" and collaborate more effectively "to steal funds from disinformation".